Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks became the first actor in 50 years to be awarded back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards— in 1994 as the AIDS-stricken lawyer in Philadelphia and the following year in Forrest Gump. He also won Golden Globe Awards for both of these performances, along with his work in Big and Cast Away. Most recently, Hanks reprised two popular roles: Woody in Pixar's hit franchise Toy Story 3, with Tim Allen, and Robert Langdon in Angels & Demons, Ron Howard's 2009 sequel to The Da Vinci Code. He also starred, opposite Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman, in Mike Nichols' Charlie Wilson's War. He recently completed fi lming Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, with Sandra Bullock.

Raised in Oakland, California, Hanks became interested in acting during high school. He attended Chabot College in Hayward, California, and the California State University at Sacramento. At the invitation of artistic director Vincent Dowling, he made his professional debut at the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. He performed in that company for three seasons.

Hanks moved to New York City in 1978 and performed with the Riverside Shakespeare Company before he was teamed with Peter Scolari in the ABC television comedy series Bosom Buddies. This led to starring roles in Ron Howard's Splash, his fi rst collaboration with the director. In 1988, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association recognized his performances in both Big and Punchline, bestowing Hanks their Best Actor Award. Roles followed in fi lms such as A League of Their Own and Sleepless in Seattle.

In 1996, Hanks wrote and directed That Thing You Do! The fi lm's title song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. After reteaming with Ron Howard in Apollo 13, Hanks served as an executive producer, writer, director and actor for HBO's From the Earth to the Moon—an Emmywinning 12-hour dramatic fi lm anthology that explored the Apollo space program.

In 1998, Hanks starred in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination. The following year, he starred in The Green Mile, which was written and directed by Frank Darabont and is based on the six-part serialized novel by Stephen King.

In 2000, Hanks reunited with director Robert Zemeckis and screenwriter William Broyles Jr., in Cast Away, for which he received yet another Oscar nomination. That same year, he served with Steven Spielberg as executive producer, writer and director for another epic HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers, based on Stephen Ambrose's book. The miniseries aired in the fall of 2001 to wide-scale critical acclaim, leading to an Emmy Award and Golden Globe for Best Miniseries in 2002.

In 2002, Hanks starred in Road to Perdition, opposite Paul Newman and Jude Law, under Sam Mendes' direction. It was followed by Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, which was based on the true-life exploits of international confi dence man Frank Abagnale Jr.

Hanks teamed for a third time with Spielberg on The Terminal, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones, and followed it with the Coen brothers' dark comedy The Ladykillers. In November 2004, Hanks starred in the fi lm adaptation of the Caldecott Medal-winning children's book The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, which reunited him once again with director Robert Zemeckis.

In 2008, Hanks, with his production company Playtone, executive produced the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson. The series went on to win an Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries and a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television. Hanks recently reteamed with Spielberg to produce the HBO miniseries The Pacific, which premiered in March 2010 and went on to win a staggering 15 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Miniseries.

In 2009, the Film Society of Lincoln Center honored Hanks at its Gala Tribute.

Note: This profile was written in or before 2011.Read earlier biographies on this page.